SUU Professor Publishes Research on SUVs

August 01, 2005Author: Renee BallengerCategory: Academics

The most recent paper of Dr. Desmond Penny, professor of engineering and physics at Southern Utah University, forms the basis for a subsequent paper by Jonathan Hall and Jerry Magraw of Penn State University.

Penny’s original paper “Rollover of Sports-Utility Vehicles” was published in February 2004 in the nationally-refereed pedagogical journal “The Physics Teacher.” Penny then presented this work at three authoritative conferences. Afterward, many requests followed for copies of Penny’s paper, one of which was from a writer for CNN Money; Peter Valdes-Dapena interviewed Penny extensively and had a series of articles on the subject in Fall 2004. “My paper reveals crucial errors in the book on this subject: Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics by Thomas D. Gillespie,” Penny explains. “I corresponded with the author on these issues. He will incorporate these corrections in future editions of his book.”

Another request came from Hall and Magraw who have since constructed a laboratory apparatus that tested the theory presented in Penny’s paper. They found remarkable agreement between Penny’s theory and their experimental results. Their paper, titled, “Modeling Vehicle Rollover” will be published in an upcoming edition of “The Physics Teacher.”

Penny’s paper has been well-received nationally and has contributed important knowledge to the study of rollovers of SUVs. Penny’s paper can be viewed on the web at: http://www.suu.edu/faculty/penny/RolloverPaper/RolloverPaper.pdf For more information, contact Dr. Penny at SUU at 435.586.7708.